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Arroz con Leche Colombiano (Rice Pudding)

Arroz con Leche is one of my favorite Colombian desserts. This Colombian-Style Rice Pudding version is sweet, creamy and delicious. There are different variations of arroz con leche in Latin America, this is my family recipe and it is very easy to make.

The rice pudding will thicken more as it cools, so be careful not to overcook. I hope you enjoy making my simple and easy Arroz con Leche recipe!

Comments

I made this tonight, but it didn’t turn out right 🙁 I am thinking bc the rice was still crunchy that I may have cooked it too high. I even used the timer for each step—see I couldn’t figure out how one cup of rice that cooked for over an hour and a half still ended up crunchy lol. I want to try again, but try maybe cooking the rice a little longer. When it was down to the last 20 min of cooking it was already getting pretty thick…I use a gas range so I have to gauge what the temp really is (high/med/low..etc). The flavor was awesome! It was hard to have to pitch it out let me know if you have any suggestions

Do not lift the lid while the rice is cooking
Not even a peek
The timer is most accurate when
cooking the rice and after you add the rice and reduce the heat you can see that all is well placing the lid on until the time goes off
No peeking
Not one tiny peek
The lid is steaming and cooking the rice

I had the same problem of the rice being hard even after soaking it overnight. I researched it and it turns out sugar solidifies the starch in the rice, so the rice can’t absorb moisture as it normally does. So the solution is to not add the sugar or condensed milk until AFTER the rice is very soft. Its important to let it get rather mushy because it also hardens back up after its put in the refrigerator.

Hello, I’m very happy I found this website. I’m American. My husband is COL. We live in Bogota; recently moved. I’ve tasted several arroz con leches here. This recipe has great flavor, but is very sweet for my taste. I have made rice pudding before and never use more than a cup of sugar. Anyway, thank you. Tomorrow, I’m going to try the sopa de lentejas.

Great recipe erica, my family is from Barranquilla my mom makes it with regular milk, evaporated milk,condensed milk , and coconut milk. and the same ingredients as you.thanks fellow colombian!!! love this website

I’m colombian but my husband is not. I love to get these recipes in english so I know exactly what to buy here in USA. sometimes thigs get lost in translation!!
This one looks great. I ususally put Rum..just to add a little XXX to it hahah

need ur help!!! just finished making the arroz con leche. followed every direction to the “T”. the rice is still kinda hard. what should i do? i dont want to throw it out cuz that will be a waste of money. the sauce has already thickened…is there any tips i can do to soften it up a bit?

I found that putting a lid on the saucepan (step 2, rice and cinnamon water) helped to ensure the rice softened enough within 5 minutes. Yes, amazing flavor! Favorite variations include substituting cardamom pods for 1 or 2 of the cinnamon sticks (my Colombian boyfriend loves this), or substituting a can of coconut milk for the condensed milk which makes it less sweet but just as rich!
Gracias, Erica!

hey erica,
so i made the arroz con leche yesterday and my husband really likes it however he says it is really sweet and i had to add more milk to his serving and heat it to make it not so sweet. and i remember my suegra making it the same way but not putting in any sugar just adding the sweetened condensed milk. could i follow your recipe and just leave the sugar out so it is not too sweet for him???
other than that it was so easy to make and looks exactly how my suegra made it. thanks
danielle

I just made the arroz con leche and I’m tasting it now. It is way too sweet. I realized that most condensed milk comes in 14 oz can and the recipe calls for 12oz. If you only have the 14oz can you can omit some of the sugar.

Also, the temperature I thought was too high for low-med on my electric range. I found I needed to stir frequently otherwise the rice sticks at the bottom. So to remedy the sweetness I added some half n half, ran out of milk, and I reduce the temp setting to low. The rice doesn’t stick as much and it’s cooking thoroughly, less crunchy rice. I will make this again for sure.

Hello Erica I been looking for a Colombian recipe for awhile now that was very similar to my mom’s and I found yours. I wanted to know if am making a lot of Arroz con leche (bag of 3 LB pack) what’s the amount of the ingredients that I should put in the Rice Pudding for it to be Perfectly Delicious please answer back 🙂

Thank you so much for the recipe~ Muy Deliciosa!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just returned from Colombia 2 weeks in Bogota and 2 weeks in Manizales; I found your website and am so very happy for you Gracias por todos recetes y la comida buena 🙂 I did add raisins and cloves as my sister did in Manizales…..very perfect recipe thank you! ~Susan

Erica,
I just finished up making the arroz con leche. This is a wonderful recipe and it has amazing flavor. I’m a culinary student and enjoy learning about cuisine across different cultures. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!
~Charlotte

I also had trouble with the rice being too hard, so I added about another cup of milk and simmered on medium for the last 30 minutes. I also added about a 1/4 cup of raisins during the last 20 minutes. Delicious!

Hi Erica!
I’m from Bucaramanga now living in Canada and can’t wait to make my family your arroz con leche! However…I’m very health-conscious and was wondering if I could reduce the sugar down to about 1/4 cup? since some people mentioned it was too sweet.Thanks!

Hi, I just finished making this for the first time, and it’s amazing! I wanted to try making it because the one I had at the Colombian restaurant was fantastic and wanted to see if I could make it myself. This recipe is great, easy to follow and easy to make! (Although I didn’t use the sugar at all and just used the sweetened condensed milk.) Also, I didn’t have any long grain rice so I decided to use Japanese sweet rice (mochi rice) and turned out awesome! Thanks for the delicious recipe 🙂

I made this again, 3 years from when I first tried it.. and this time it turned out great! I did not use the extra sugar.. for us the condensed milk was enough 🙂 Used 1% milk and fat free condensed milks…still turned out thick. Tried to cut some calories somewhere! Cooking the rice with the lid def. helped in steps 2 and 3, but on low heat. Very yummy.. my daughter’s favorite 🙂

Hi Erica,
I’m British and live in London with my British-born Colombian boyfriend. As he hasn’t been back there since he was a little boy he says he doesn’t really feel much of a connection but you should see the look on his face whenever I cook something using your recipes. Always a big smile followed by a story of his memories. This is his favourite and I will be making it for dessert on Christmas day 🙂

I live in London and spend my life trying to recreate my childhood home from Cali with music, photos and food. I have just made this for Christmas dinner dessert, I made it exactly as you said, only difference was right at the end I only had to leave it for 40 mins instead of an hour and 15. The rice was already soft and the milk was starting to stick. So I turned it off and have let it set over night. WOW! this tastes better than my aunts. I am so proud to have been able to make this, it is the perfect sweetness. Mum requested raisins so I added those at the end. AMAZING RECIPE! Thank you so much ! and so easy! I feel like a total professional! ps. I used one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder instead of sticks (totally sold out everywhere because of Christmas) and it still worked perfectly! Thanks again M.x

Very good recipe. The consistency and texture are perfect, nice and thick and creamy, and it was very easy to make. I did find it to be sweeter than I like, so next time I make it I will cut the sugar in half, at least.

However, it is way too sweet. I completely omit adding any sugar and just use the sweetened condensed milk and it suits my tastes better. So, if you don’t like it super sweet that’s a good way to make it.

Also if you own a rice steamer (like I do), you can boil the cinnamon sticks and use that water in the rice steamer to steam the rice, then add it back to the pot and do the milk thing.

Well, nevermind….I forgot I had to keep stirring it… Oops! I just finished it, Didn’t take but about 45 min. to cook….I could have let it cook for an hour, but we are ready to try it! Looks & smells YUMMY! Thank You for the recipe.

Hello, I really want to try this recipe, but I live in Japan and only have short grain rice. Do you think this recipe could still work? Any suggested modifications? I was hoping to make this for Valentine’s Day 😀

My husband is Colombian and I am Italian/Irish. He loves rice pudding and his mom rarely makes it for him and when she does she never adds enough Lechera. I’m making it for his birthday and already I am intoxicated by the smell. I personally do not like rice pudding but I will certainly be trying this!! Thank you for sharing

Hi Erica. This is the best, reminded me of my grandma’s. My kids loved it, even though the rice was still a little hard. We are trying your recipe once again and hopefully the rice will cook. It’s for my son’s school project. Keep your fingers crossed for us

Best Rice Pudding!
I cook the rice a bit in the cinnamon water and add only 1/2 cup sugar. .. turns out perfect every time! I’m Italian but my Colombian and Puerto Rican friends love this recipe too!
Thanks!

I found this recipe today. Omg! This is so good. I microwaved the rice in water while the water and cinnamon sticks were boiling. It worked out perfect. Rice was very soft not crunchy at all.
Thank you for posting

My mom is from Cali and this is how she makes it. First of all we let the rice SoCal over night (2cups) then the next day we put one cup of water with two cinnamon sticks to boil. Once the water is brownish we add 10 cups of milk. Once that gets foamy or boils we add the rice. After it gets a little heavy we add coconut shavings(optional) and leche condensada. Then keep mixing for another 10-15 mins. We also believe that only one person should be mixing the pot *with a wooden spoon too!

I add a tsp of white distilled vinegar, a pinch of salt and the cinnamon sticks to the pot as I start to boil the rice. The turns out nice & fluffy and with cinnamon flavor. I also add ground cinnamon while adding the milk and
gently stirring it in.

This rice pudding turned out way too sweet. I also noticed the rice was a bit “al dente“ not fully cooked. I’ll make a smaller batch, 1/2 the recipe and definitely cut the sugar. I think sugar plus condensed milk is way too much sweet. I also cut the cooking since the final product was too thick.